Suicide attack on Pakistan border police HQ kills 3

Peshawar: A suicide bombing killed three Pakistani paramilitary personnel on Monday at a security headquarters in Peshawar city, officials said, the latest deadly violence in the province bordering Afghanistan.

Witness Bilal Ahmed, a hospital employee, said he was on his way to work when he heard a “large blast” from the border force facility, located on one of the city’s busiest routes and across the street from a shopping mall.

An AFP reporter saw body parts of a suspected bomber lying outside the main gate on Saddar Road, which was riddled with shrapnel holes. A single discarded black shoe was left nearby.

Rescue workers made their way through the scene, which was peppered with shattered glass from a vehicle.

One assailant detonated explosives at around 8:10am, just before rush hour, killing “three FC (Federal Constabulary) personnel deployed at the gate”, said Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed.

Security forces shot dead two other suspected attackers, Saeed said.

Four people were wounded in the attack, he added.

Security personnel in high-visibility jackets cordoned off the road, while armed forces in camouflage began combing the area, AFP correspondents saw.

“The attack has concluded, and a clearance operation is under way to determine whether any unexploded ordnance is present,” Zulfiqar Hameed, the police chief of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told AFP.

The province, whose capital is Peshawar, borders Afghanistan and has seen repeated bouts of militant violence which has intensified since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned Monday’s attack and said that “the perpetrators of this incident should be identified as soon as possible and brought to justice.”

He also praised the “timely action” of security forces for averting greater loss of life.

“We will thwart the evil designs of terrorists who attack Pakistan’s integrity,” said Sharif.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Pakistan’s state-run broadcaster PTV reported that the assailants had been identified as Afghan nationals.

Border tensions

Pakistan has blamed previous attacks on militants, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which it claims operate from Afghan soil.

Kabul denies the charge, saying Islamabad must address its own security failings.

On November 11, a suicide bomber killed 12 people outside a court building in the capital Islamabad, an attack Pakistan said was planned from Afghanistan. A faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed that assault.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have sharply deteriorated in recent months.

Deadly cross-border clashes last month killed more than 70 people on both sides, in the South Asian neighbours’ worst fighting in years.

The two countries agreed to a fragile ceasefire but failed to finalise its terms after several rounds of talks, each blaming the other for the impasse.